Decoloniality, Decolonisation and Southern Perspectives: a brief overview
Much has been said about decoloniality and decolonisation around the world, especially by scholars working under past and present colonial pressures. However, in many cases, these perspectives and theoretical positionalities are taken for granted and/or ignored by the Global North absorbed in its Western and Eurocentric cosmovision. That is why this seminar aims to present what are the past and present consequences of colonial power over knowledges and cultures represented by ‘the other’ and how this has been interpreted and used by different scholars in the North and South. Doing so, the seminar will present different currents of thought, understanding their struggles and their different theoretical positionalities towards overcoming their marginalisation such as the African and the Latin-American communities and their Diasporas. Further, also cases in New Zealand and Australia will form part of this brief overview positioning global North scholars as allies. Hence, after this seminar attendees will gain a better understanding of the different terminology used in the field with a global perspective of different streams of decolonial thinking, their aims and views.
Seminario virtual a través de TEAMS
Carmen Martinez-Vargas is currently based at the SARCHI Chair’s Higher Education and Human Development Research Programme at the University of the Free State, South Africa, as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow. She has several years’ experience working with participatory approaches (participatory methods, methodologies and research processes) within the global North and global South having collaborated in more than six national and international participatory projects. Since 2018, she has been the Coordinator of the Participatory Methods thematic group at the Human Development and Capabilities Association (HDCA) and her research interest problematises the intersection of decoloniality and social justice in the context of human development using participatory research. She has equally facilitated training workshops about different participatory practices and decolonial approaches in South Africa and has published in international journals about different studies. Her forthcoming monograph is titled Democratising Participatory Research: Pathways to Social Justice from the Global South.